Are You My Neighbor?
Are You My Neighbor? is the third episode of VeggieTales. The first segment is in the style of the works of Dr. Seuss. The second segment is based on the 1960s sci-fi series Star Trek. Plot Countertop Intro Bob and Larry are on the countertop again, though Larry's seen with a shoe on his head. When Larry asks why he has a shoe on his head, Bob explains that he got a letter from Latasha Robbins of Savannah, Georgia, who wants to know what it means to love your neighbor. Bob then says that he's going to tell Latasha "The Story of Flibber-O-Loo". The Story of Flibber-O-Loo (See the main page for the plot.) Silly Song (The Hairbrush Song.) The Gourds Must Be Crazy (See the main page for the plot.) Bible Verse Leviticus 19:18, Love your neighbor as yourself. Production Series creator Phil Vischer had been wanting to make an episode that he could style after Dr. Seuss stories that he would read to his children, and at the same wtime wondered which story from the New Testament he could retell, given that his mother had suggested a policy that Jesus would not be depicted as a vegetable, and most of the New Testament besides the Gospels (i.e. the biographies of Jesus) were letters. He ended up choosing the the Good Samaritan, one of Jesus' parables and it proved to be a time consuming challenge, but in the end proved to be very successful. Meanwhile, Big Idea just went through some backlash from confused and disappointed fans regarding the lack of a Silly Song with Larry in the previous episode. Phil went to co-creator and voice actor for Larry, Mike Nawrocki, and told him to come up with a new silly song. While shaving, Mike looked for his razor and started singing to himself, "Oh, where is my razor?" and later suggested it to Phil. Mike was unmarried and had no children at the time, so he did not realize that children might get the idea to look for their parents' razors, so Phil suggested they find another, much less dangerous, object one would find in a bathroom, and thus Mike wrote The Hairbrush Song. Phil then went on to make another pop culture spoof for the second segment after spoofing Gilligan's Island, ''this time based on ''Star Trek. Home media It was first released on January 3, 1995 by Word Entertainment. It was reprinted in 1997 by Lyrick Studios. In 1998 and 1999, Word Entertainment and Lyrick Studios reprinted it twice. In 2006, it was released to DVD for the first time in the VeggieTales Classics line by Sony Wonder. Characters * Bob the Tomato * Larry the Cucumber (as a Flibbian) * Junior Asparagus (as a denizen of Jibber-de-Lot) * Archibald Asparagus (the mayor of Flibber-o-Loo) * Lovey Asparagus (as a doctor from Flibber-o-Loo) * The Scallions (as thieves) * Laura Carrot (as a denizen of Jibber-de-Lot; non-speaking role) * Lenny Carrot (as a denizen of Jibber-de-Lot) * Dad Carrot (as a denizen of Jibber-de-Lot; non-speaking role) * Miner (as a Flibbian, non-speaking role) * Dad Asparagus (as a Flibbian in The Story of Flibber-o-Loo and himself in The Gourds Must Be Crazy) * Lisa Asparagus (Photo) * Jimmy and Jerry Gourd * Scooter Carrot * Qwerty * The Peach (appears in Silly Song) * Pa Grape (appears in Silly Song) Songs *VeggieTales Theme Song *Busy, Busy *Love Your Neighbor *The Hairbrush Song *I Can Be Your Friend *What Have We Learned Home media VHS *Word Entertainment/Everland Entertainment (original release) *Lyrick Studios (December 6, 1997/March 31, 1998, 2000) *Sony Wonder (March 11, 2006) DVD *Sony Wonder (March 11, 2006) Fun Facts Moral(s) *Don't judge others by their differences. Trivia *This is the first episode for several things: **The first appearance of The Peach, Scooter, Laura, Lenny, their father, Jimmy and Jerry Gourd. **The first episode Ron Smith worked on. **The first to feature Bob and Larry's voices they would use for the rest of the series. **The first episode not to have "God" in the title. **This is the first episode to feature the kitchen sink, as shown in The Hairbrush Song. **The first episode to be distributed by Lyrick Studios in 1997. *This is also the last episode for several things: **The last appearance of Henry the Potato Miner. **The last classic VeggieTales episode to be released on DVD. *The inspiration for the shoes being on the citizens of Flibber-o-Loo's heads' was inspired by the 1985 film Brazil ''which features a group of women wearing hats with upside down shoes on them. Lovey's hat is the closest to resembling the ones shown in the film. *According to the DVD rom feature, the scripts for the two stories were written in 1994. *Some scenes on the "Flibber-O-Loo" segment were rendered interlaced (where the first, third, fifth, and so on line is rendered, then the second, fourth, sixth, and so on line is rendered) rather than progressive (where the first, second, third, and so on line are rendered in sequence) because they would have caused a strobing effect otherwise with VHS quality. They are rendered progressively in the DVD releases. *According to the 2002 "Silly Snow Day" product catalog, the DVD was originally planned to be released in 2003 but cancelled, likely due to Big Idea's bankruptcy. The commentary referring to Sumo of the Opera as a future episode hints that it was planned to be released in 2004 around the same time as the DVD releases for God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!, Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! and Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed before being shelved once more until its eventual release in 2006. **However, the VeggieTales Classics version of the episode was released to VHS in 2002, but uses the 2000 version without any edits to the audio. Remarks *The audio for recent releases is different than in the original. This includes the classic ''Star Trek door opening SFX being omitted, possibly to avoid copyright issues. *According to the audio commentary on Dave and the Giant Pickle, Phil Vischer has stated that the space environment, along with the desert environment, were the easiest environments to create at the time. *The quotation at the end is only part of Leviticus 19:18. The whole verse is, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." It was likely cut because the rest would seem distracting and it would look small and might not have been legible on VHS. *Bob said that Jibber-de-Lot would look down at the shoe people, but the towns are actually on the same altitude. **On a similar note, why are the towns separated at different lengths between shots? *Bob introduces himself as a tomato to Junior even though he had already done so in the first episode. *Jimmy and Jerry can breathe in space, despite not wearing any helmets. *The table, despite losing one leg, still stands. *Bob and Larry need directions for the freeway, yet they're in a spaceship. *Bob says they need the Mr. Slushy money for tolls even though they could easily fly over the toll booth in their spaceship. Fixed Goofs/Goofs *In the original version of the video, when the doctor of Flibber-o-loo, Larry, and the mayor of Flibber-o-loo gather with Junior to perform a chorus during the song "Love Your Neighbor", a couple of glitches occurred (which were fixed in later re-releases of the episode, despite the Stars edition still keeping in the animation glitches): **The frames were chopping ahead when the doctor and mayor hop over to Junior. **Larry abruptly appears halfway on the screen (while the doctor was hopping) before hopping over to Junior. *Also in the original version, Bob turns away from the viewer to face Qwerty for the Bible verse, then suddenly jerks back to facing the viewer like he was before. Bob's face after this is only visible for a frame or two before the scene shifts to Qwerty displaying the verse. Like the glitches above, this too was fixed in later re-releases. *When Larry says, "It's great that my lobster can get out and run!", his mouth doesn't move. *When the bandits make their way down the hill to rob Larry, the sky is black. *When the mayor of Flibber-o-loo first approaches Larry (while his head was stuck in a hole), he's seen coming from Jibber-de-Lot (the green town), not Flibber-o-loo (the pink town). He might have some diplomatic business to attend to. *In the shot showing Junior and Larry walking up the hill after Junior helped Larry out of the ground, neither of them have mouths. *There are a few instances where the characters' pupils clip through their eyelids. These include: **Junior when he gets startled by Bob and Larry. **Bob when his eyes are in closeup. *Some shots show Jimmy clipping through his seat. *In the scene where Bob and Larry take Junior back home in the second segment, you'll notice the shadow of the spaceship is stuck perfectly still on the wall near the window before heading out the window. *One shot shows Jerry clipping through his seat. *One shot shows Jerry without his headset, and he has it in the next shot. *When Bob, Larry, Scooter, and Junior run away from the window of the ship, Bob freezes for a second before running to the left. *During "I Can Be Your Friend," if you pause at the right moment as Jimmy and Jerry Gourd's part cuts to the crew's, you can see what appears to be a second USS Applepies floating outside the window. *During the end of the second segment, when Bob and Larry come back to Junior for directions for the freeway, the lights on the spaceship don't light up on Junior's face. *Qwerty's verse background stays on his screen even when he's done displaying the verse. Inside References *A few references from the first episode: **The contract, which makes an appearance in a picture frame in the Flibbian doctor's office. **Bob introducing himself as a tomato to Junior, shortly after he and Larry dropped in once again. Real World References *Play-Doh is a modeling compound used by young children for arts and craft. *Jell-O is a trademark of Kraft Foods for varieties of gelatin. *"All they do is sing and eat, eat and sing!" is a take on a Garfield comic strip from June 30th, 1978 ("All I ever do is eat and sleep, eat and sleep, eat and sleep. There must be more to a cat's life than that. But, I hope not."). Fast Forward *"The Story of Flibber-o-Loo" would be used at the end of A Snoodle's Tale. *There's a later episode where they spoof Star Trek. Episode Transcript *Transcript Gallery Category:VeggieTales episodes Category:Episodes Category:Biblical adaptations Category:VHS Category:DVDs Category:1990s Episodes Category:VCD Category:In-house productions Category:Episodes aired on TV Category:Classroom editions